SaintJohn Joseph of the Cross and SaintFrancis de Geronimo both predicted Mary France’s sanctity even before she was born. Daughter of Francesco Gallo, a greedy and angry man, and Barbara Basinsin, a pious and patient woman who put up with her husband’s abuse of herself, and his ill-treatment of Mary Frances, who was often worked nearly to death. The girl made her first Communion at age 7, and went to Mass nearly every day of her life there after. When she was 16, her father tried to force her into marriage with a rich young man; she refused, and became a Franciscantertiary on 8 September1731. Stigmatist whose outward signs disappeared when she prayed. Suffered assorted bodily ills and severe penances given by her family, her sisters, even her confessors. She eventually became known as a counsellor to priests, sisters, and pious laymen. She spent her last 38 years as a recluse in the home of Father Giovanni Pessiri.